PHD, Kent State University, 2024, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

This explanatory sequential mixed-methods study aimed to investigate how undergraduate students' everyday texting experiences related to their social connectedness. This research was conducted through a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews. The quantitative phase involved a survey distributed to a sample of undergraduate students, assessing their texting frequency, demographic variables (age, gender, race/ethnicity, and living arrangements), and levels of social connectedness using the Social Connectedness Scale-Revised (SCS-R; Lee et al., 2001). The subsequent qualitative phase involved semi-structured interviews with a subset of participants selected based on their survey responses to gain deeper insights into their texting behaviors and perceptions of social connectedness. The study's findings indicated that while texting frequency significantly predicted social connectedness among undergraduate students, demographic variables do not show a substantial impact. Additionally, students' perceptions of texting as a tool for maintaining social connections varied, with some viewing it as a convenient means of communication and others finding it insufficient for meaningful interaction. Key motivations for using texting included convenience, immediacy, and the non-intrusive nature of asynchronous communication (Liu et al., 2014; Hall et al., 2018). Texting was generally viewed as less effective than face-to-face interactions for developing deeper social ties (Derks et al., 2008; Uhls et al., 2014). This study contributed to the limited research on digital communication and social connectedness among undergraduate students by highlighting the significant role of texting frequency in predicting social connectedness (Ehrenreich et al., 2019; Harley et al., 2007). It also underscored the need for educational institutions to develop programs that leveraged texting to enhance peer connections while promoting the balanced use of digital and face-to-face interaction (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Enrico Gandolfi (Committee Chair); Richard Ferdig (Committee Co-Chair); Frank Ryan (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; Communication; Curricula; Curriculum Development; Education; Educational Technology; Instructional Design; Mass Media; Mental Health

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2022, Health Education

Introduction: College students are spending approximately a third of their day on their cell phones (Penglee et al., 2019). Students' excessive use of phones is distracting, detrimental to students' grades, and can negatively impact students' mental health (Glassman et al., 2021; Lepp et al., 2014; Smetaniuk, 2014). There is a lack of research regarding the prevalence of phone use among students, how perceptions affect phone use, and what types of messaging may influence phone behaviors. Purpose: This alternative, or manuscript dissertation, includes two distinct studies. Study one is a quantitative study which examined the prevalence of phone use, addictive phone tendencies, the effects that perception (social norms) have on phone use, and whether phone in the classroom use is predictive of poor grades. Study two was an experimental, message manipulation where participants were exposed to one of several preventive messages. This study utilized a quantitative design (with qualitative elements) to assess which message was most effective in influencing willingness to change behaviors, and whether the Precaution Adoption Process Model (PAPM) and the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) may be useful in influencing modifying college students' phone behavior. Methods: (Study 1) An online survey was distributed via Prolific with 40 survey items to measure the prevalence of phone use in class and while studying, perceptions of use among peers (including injunctive and descriptive norms), and to measure addictive phone behaviors (n=500). (Study 2) Using the same participant pool as study 1, an online survey was utilized to conduct an experimental message manipulation to determine which message type was most effective in influencing participants' willingness to change phone-use behaviors. Inclusion criteria for both studies was the same: current undergraduate students who own a smartphone. Results: (Study 1) Participants reported using their phones at high levels, (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Tavis Glassman (Committee Chair); Andy Geers (Committee Member); Ling Na (Committee Member); Nicole McKenzie (Committee Member); Aliaksandr Amialchuk (Committee Member) Subjects: Health Education; Public Health

PHD, Kent State University, 2021, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Health Sciences

The purpose of this study was to observe the relationships and effects of cell phone use on physical activity, sedentary behavior, psychological variables, and academic performance of adolescents and adults. Through an online survey of 17 adolescents, we observed a negative relationship between cell phone use with physical activity as well as a positive relationship between cell phone use with academic performance. We did not observe any relationships between sedentary behavior, anxiety, or satisfaction with life in adolescent children. Through am online survey of 307 university students and employees we observed a negative effect of cell phone use on sedentary behavior. Individuals experiencing an increase in cell phone use throughout the COVID-19 pandemic sat more than individuals who did not increase cell phone use. The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative effect on physical activity and sedentary behavior. Regardless of cell phone use, individuals experience lower amounts of mild physical activity and increased weekly sitting throughout the pandemic.

Committee: Jacob Barkley PhD (Committee Chair); Kingsley J. Derek PhD (Committee Member); Lepp Andrew PhD (Committee Member); Lyberger Mark PhD (Other) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Health

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2017, Art History (Fine Arts)

This thesis attempts to answer questions and concerns of Martha Rosler and Allan Sekula regarding documentary photography. Rosler wondered – decades ago, now – if documentary photography could ever supersede its benign liberal origins and become, in her own words, radical. Sekula feared our inattentiveness to the tool's equal use by the state to repressive ends. By addressing the past preoccupations of the arch-documentarians, this thesis attempts to find the state of documentary and image-making in the contemporary. This paper consists of three parts: the first, which deals with the battle surrounding image-making in public as embodied by copwatching; the second, which more directly addresses the impact of cell phones on documentary, the decline of professional news photography, and the rise of a new subject-author; and the last, which considers the operation of the drone and the images it produces.

Committee: Louis-Georges Schwartz (Advisor); Jennie Klein (Committee Chair); Marilyn Bradshaw (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History

PHD, Kent State University, 2016, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Health Sciences

American adults participate in low physical activity and high sedentary behavior. Specific Aim #1 assessed the effects of a 16-week worksite exercise program on physical activity, sedentary behavior, fitness-related variables, and health-related psychometric trait changes. Specific Aim #2 examined the relationship between cell phone use, physical activity, and sedentary behavior in adults 30 years of age and older. Employees participated in a 16-week exercise intervention (Intervention group: n = 47, n = 38 females) or served as a control (Control group: n = 15, n = 11 females), completed fitness testing, wore accelerometers, and completed questionnaires assessing their physical and sedentary behavior, psychometric traits, and cell phone use. Results revealed both groups participated in recommended physical activity with no differences between groups (p = 0.2 for all measures). Sedentary behavior significantly decreased (p = 0.003) in the Intervention group. Fitness-related variables and health behavior improved in both groups, but to a greater extent in the Intervention group. Cell phone use was not associated with objective physical activity (r = 0.1, p = 0.3 for both), subjective physical activity, (r = 0.1, p = 0.3 for all), or sedentary behavior (r = - 0.11, p = 0.4). These results suggest participating in a worksite exercise program or participating in regular fitness assessments may foster positive health outcomes, but the worksite exercise program may lead to greater improvements. Adults 30 years and older may prefer other more traditional forms of activity during their sedentary time than the use of a cell phone.

Committee: Jacob Barkley PHD (Committee Co-Chair); Ellen Glickman PHD (Committee Co-Chair); J. Derek Kingsley PHD (Committee Member); Andrew Lepp PHD (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Health Sciences; Kinesiology

MS, University of Cincinnati, 2015, Engineering and Applied Science: Computer Science

E-SCALE, Energy-efficient Scalable sensor Coverage with cell-phone Apps using LTE, is a newly adopted approach to provide large scale sensor coverage using cell phones and cellular network infrastructure. The focus of this thesis is to propose the idea of E-SCALE, extend it through simulations to determine how E-SCALE and its traffic can impact the key performance indices of the backbone network, i.e., LTE in this case. E-SCALE addresses the problem of providing occasional sensor coverage in a public area that occasionally hosts a large number of people. Since, investing for permanent sensor network based surveillance infrastructure in such places involves fairly large amount of money. Thus, E-SCALE is conceived for providing on-the-fly safety surveillance for occasional crowd. In our simulation we have taken LTE as the backbone infrastructure essential for E-SCALE. Our simulation results shows that a large area occupied by a crowd can be taken under environmental and safety surveillance monitoring by simply using the cell phones' sensors of the people gathered over the concerned area. E-SCALE can also take care of the battery power saving of the audience's cell phones to make it an energy-efficient technique. Smart phones are mostly equipped with hi-end sensor systems like temperature sensors, toxic-gas-sensors and likewise many more to be expected in near future. Hence, without any requirement of explicit sensors deployment for say, fire-safety, air-pollution, toxic gas detection, etc., a large area with gathering of people can be monitored continually, effectively and that's too in an energy efficient way.This thesis reports detail simulation results how this sensor data traffic could affect the LTE network performance. Another effort is made to reduce the battery power consumption of the user equipment so that the guests can freely use applications other than E-SCALE during the gatherings and the user equipment do not suffer from drainage of high battery power. (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dharma Agrawal D.Sc. (Committee Chair); Raj Bhatnagar Ph.D. (Committee Member); Chia Han Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Science

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2014, Arts and Sciences: Psychology

The objective of the present study was to investigate the combined risks of adolescence, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and distraction (cell phone conversation and text messaging) on simulated driving performance. Sixty-one adolescents (ages 16-17) with ADHD (n=28) and controls (n=33) reported their driving history and were engaged in a simulated drive under three conditions (no distraction, cell phone conversation, text messaging). During each condition, one unexpected event (e.g., car suddenly merging into the driver's lane) was introduced. Adolescents with ADHD reported fewer months of driving experience and a higher proportion of driving violations than controls. No group differences were found for crash rates or reported history of cell phone use while driving. After controlling for months of driving experience, adolescents with ADHD demonstrated more variability in speed and lane position than controls, although the groups displayed similar average speed, braking reaction time, and likelihood of crashing into the unexpected event. Further, text messaging negatively impacted the driving performance of all participants as evidenced by increase variability in speed and lane position. Visual attention mediated the relationship between ADHD status and variability in lane position as well the relationship between distraction condition and lane position variability. This study, the first to investigate distracted driving in adolescents with ADHD, adds to a growing body of literature documenting that individuals with ADHD are at increased risk for negative driving outcomes. Furthermore, texting significantly impairs the driving performance of all adolescents, highlighting the need for education and enforcement of regulations against texting while driving for this age group.

Committee: Jeffery Epstein Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Gerald Matthews Ph.D. (Committee Member); Sarah Whitton Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2011, Arts and Sciences: Psychology

It has been proposed that cell phone use while driving may provide benefits during monotonous trips (Pope, 2009). Previous research has shown that voice communication enhances mental alertness when driving long distances (Drory, 1985). A recent study showed that a strategically placed verbal task may improve performance during monotonous driving conditions (Atchley & Chan, 2011). Nevertheless, the interaction of monotony and fatigue in different driving conditions when engaged in more personalized conversation has not been well-explored. The present study tested whether the effects of cell phone use on driver performance and subjective state differ depending on the fatigue induced by qualitatively different driving scenarios: passive fatigue and control conditions (see Desmond & Hancock, 2011). Passive fatigue appears to be associated with low workload (underload) conditions, in which cognitive demands on the driver are low (e.g., monotonous conditions characterized by low traffic density, minimal steering demands, and constant speed). Results of this study showed that the passive form of fatigue appears to be particularly hazardous in driving. Further, cell phone conversation did not serve to reduce the subjective experience of passive fatigue; rather, it added worry about matters unrelated to the driving task. Regarding performance, cell phone use moderately improves vehicle control, but did not improve brake response times or crash rates. Moreover, cell phone conversation appears to reduce drivers' insights into their own performance impairments when passively fatigued, which is a potentially hidden danger. Finally, certain personality types are more prone to passive fatigue.

Committee: Gerald Matthews PhD (Committee Chair); Paula Shear PhD (Committee Member); Robert Stutz PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2011, Engineering and Applied Science: Computer Science and Engineering

The limited computing resources on mobile phones, the demands of real-time requirements, and the variable and error-prone nature of the bandwidth of cell phone networks make the task of streaming live video from cell phones very challenging. As such, computational simplicity and efficiency are a requirement for video encoders on mobile devices. This research presents core components of a mobile video compression algorithm that has been developed in this project to compress real-time video from cell phones. This work shows how the careful selection of video compression components can be used to strike a delicate balance between the computationally complex nature of video compression and the efficient utilization of the limited computing resources available on cell phones. Although optimality is never claimed, a method for compressing and streaming real-time video of 15 frames per second has been developed. The video encoder uses 5-3 wavelet transformation and a new subband aligned integer run-length encoding technique to compress video in real-time on mobile devices. The wavelet video encoder is adaptive, highly scalable, and can gracefully adjust video compression levels to match changing cell phone network bandwidth conditions. Further, because of the variability of the bandwidth of cell phone networks, the efficient streaming of real-time video over cell phone networks requires the ability to adapt the quality and amount of video being streamed to the available bandwidth. This research shows that without such adaptability, video frames will be dropped. Experiments presented herein show that without an adaptive framework over 50% of the video frames can be dropped. In response to this challenge, this research implements an application layer framework for the control of real-time streaming video originating from mobile devices to better utilize available bandwidth. The approach taken here aims to align the quality and transmission rate of live streaming video with t (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Yizong Cheng PhD (Committee Chair); Richard Fox PhD (Committee Member); Fred Annexstein PhD (Committee Member); Raj Bhatnagar PhD (Committee Member); Dieter Schmidt PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Science

MA, Kent State University, 2008, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Sociology and Criminology

With the advent of cell phones, individuals are now able to maintain relationships regardless of distance and time. The purpose of this research was to identify what role the mode of communication plays in determining overall relationship satisfaction, in order to identify how communication over the cell phone compares to face-to-face communication. It is also possible that this relationship between mode of communication and relationship satisfaction is mediated by the quality of communication that is experienced within both modes of communication. To test the hypotheses, a random sample of 2,600 university students was drawn in two separate waves, of which a total of 516 students completed a web-based survey. The results of this research yield some interesting findings. First, it appears that the relationship between mode of communication and relationship satisfaction varies according to the type of relationship being studied when the quality of communication indicators are not controlled for. For friendships, communication over the cell phone has a greater positive impact on relationship satisfaction than does face-to-face communication. Family members are just the opposite: face-to-face communication has a greater positive impact on their relationship satisfaction than does cell phone communication. For Romantic Partners, however, both modes of communication are equally important in their overall relationship satisfaction when the quality of communication is not accounted for. When the quality of communication indicators are accounted for, however, it appears that in almost all cases, the frequency and quality of face-to-face communication has a greater effect on relationship satisfaction than does the frequency and quality of cell phone communication, with one exception: the frequency of cell phone communication has a greater impact on relationship satisfaction for romantic partners than does the frequency of face-to-face communication. This study also provides (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Richard Serpe PhD (Committee Chair); Richard Adams PhD (Committee Member); David Purcell PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Social Research; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2010, Communication Studies

The purpose of this study was to examine links between organization-public relationships and Millennial students'active social media behavior. The Millennial Generation is a key target audience who many public relations practitioners are certainly trying to reach. Social media tools are emerging as technology medium must-haves for public relations practitioners. This study looked at the collision of the new social media tools and the Millennial audience within the four models of public relations (Grunig and Hunt, 1984) through the relationship management framework lens. Four research questions and hypotheses were posed. Millennial students from two Midwestern universities were randomly selected to complete a survey on their relationship with the top 10 most social companies/brands as named by Ad Age, as well as the engagement with social media tools in general and specifically with those top 10 companies/brands. A total of 1,062 participants completed the survey. The break down of gender for the sample was consistent with the demographic makeup of both campuses as a whole with 43.6% male (n= 463) and 56.4% female (n= 599) completing the survey. Findings highlighted that Millennials engage with e-mail and social networking (e.g., MySpace/Facebook) more than other social media tools. For all companies/brands except CNN and Dell, as participants'general use of social media tools increased, their wanting to continue a relationship with the company/brand also increased. However, when Millennials were exposed to a variety of social media tools by each company/brand, no significant correlations were found for wanting their relationship to continue with that particular company/brand. No significant differences were found between gender and interaction with social media tools.

Committee: Terry Rentner (Advisor); Jim Foust (Committee Member); Emily Freeman Brown (Committee Member); Radhika Gajjala (Committee Member); Seth Oyer (Committee Member) Subjects: Marketing; Mass Media

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2011, Family and Consumer Sciences-Child and Family Development

New technology trends create a dilemma in the education world as schools try to create policy that minimizes distractions in the classrooms. What are schools doing to keep up with these new trends and could some applications better serve the students if the schools promoted their use? How does policy affect students, teachers, and parents? This study examined what technologies school districts in North Central Ohio were promoting within their schools and what school policies were being used to guide technology in and outside of the schools. An internet survey on technology and school policy was completed by 132 school personnel. Participants were employees of districts that used North Central Computer Cooperative as an email, technology, and continuing education service provider. Key findings included twenty-two percent of teachers and administrators responding who stated their district will be considering new technology policies in the next year and were considering a change in cell phone policy that would open up cell phone use for educational purposes. Schools were also planning to address social networks in these new policies. Teachers and administrators stated that 65.9% of them worked for a district where communicating with students on a social network was discouraged and 17.1% stated that doing so could result in possible punitive punishments. Most of the school policies discouraged use of any electronic device during the school day.

Committee: David Witt Dr. (Advisor); Susan Witt Dr. (Committee Member); Pamela Schulze Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Education Policy; Educational Leadership; Educational Technology; Technology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2012, Instructional Technology (Education)

The purpose of this study was to explore the Saudi students' perceptions of the ways in which cell phones can be used in learning and teaching as well as the obstacles that might prevent their use in education. The study also aimed at investigating whether or not there is a gender difference in perceptions of cell phone use and barriers in education. The students have a positive attitude about the use of cell phones in education. The most useful way to implement the use of cell phones in learning as perceived by Saudi students was to send notifications and to use the cell phones applications. The most serious negative concerns were that students could cheat using cell phones and that the phones had the potential to distract students. The study revealed that there is no significant difference between males and females in their perceptions toward the use of cell phones in education.

Committee: Teresa Franklin (Advisor) Subjects: Education